The Light of the World

The Gospel of John is a wondrous story, which is made exponentially greater when we consider that it’s completely true, but it’s a wonderfully told story. John probably wrote it when he was in exile on the Isle of Patmos, and so he had plenty of time to write. And the hallmark of this book, one of the signs of true genius in how the book is written, is that John has built into it these seven sayings known as the “I Am” statements of Jesus. They’re a play on words, as God used the name “I am”- Yahweh- to reveal Himself to Moses. And now Jesus is doing the same with these I am statements. The I am statements provide the structure of John’s Gospel, as Jesus says things like “I am the Bread from Heaven. I am the good shepherd. I am the true vine”, and so on. And they’re not just helpful metaphors; they’re all the fulfillment of Old Testament pictures, and what John means to communicate is that Jesus is the fulfillment of everything that the Old Testament foreshadowed.